"The World of Kanako" opens with a quickly edited five-minute sequence of people doing nasty stuff and saying nasty things, where I can almost piece together what is happening, but not quite. Then the main character is informed that his daughter is missing, and we get an opening credits sequence akin to the intro to a pulpy crime drama show. Looks like my kind of film, I thought.
Before I go on any further, I should stress that all the people in this movie, with very little exceptions, are bad people. There is nary a redeeming quality to be found among them. That said, they are all acted very well, and have very distinct qualities (all of them bad). There is our main character, Akikazu, with whom his actor, Koji Yakusho, is obviously having a lot of fun. Although he doesn't have more than two emotions, anger and fury, Yakusho manages to keep him fresh and entertaining throughout. With a less talented actor in this part, the movie would have been unwatchable.
My favourite side character in the film is police detective Asai, played by Satoshi Tsumabuki, who stands out for constantly smiling and licking a lollypop. He is obviously annoying to our main character, but never to us as audience, which is a feat very few actors pull off well. He also brings a lot of humor to the film, which is always welcome in such a bleak world as the one of Kanako.
The plot of the film, as mentioned above, kicks in after Akikazu's daughter, Kanako, has disappeared. Now he's looking for her, slowly revealing her true character in the process. Which includes a lot of violence in all of its shapes.
The film is very unpleasant to watch, with many a scene that made me cringe due to its extreme violence. Some of it is darkly comical, some of it is perverse, all of it is over the top. I personally liked that, because it is very true to the characters, and it's nice to see a movie push boundaries in such a blatant and bold way. "The World of Kanako" is basically an exploitation film, but it's done with enough style and wit to not make it seem pointless.
The editing style of the film is also very abrasive. It reminded me of "Spring Breakers," which I enjoyed a lot. If you liked that movie too, you might like "Kanako." I don't think it worked as well here, though, because unlike "Spring Breakers," this movie has fairly complicated plotting at times, and the intentionally confusing storytelling got quite irritating. Which is also true to the characters, I suppose, but unlike the extreme violence, this element of the film seemed more to be done for shock value.
The biggest weakness of the film is that the story, after a reveal fairly early on, basically stalls, and everything Akikazu learns after that point is just an extension of that information. This makes the movie's more uncomfortable elements seem very shallow, because there is little else driving the film forwards other than nastiness, and I wasn't invested in anything that was happening. I guess the director was going for a "violence begets violence" kind of message, but if so, the movie could have been at least half an hour shorter and it would have had a bigger impact.
To top it all, the resolution to the film comes out of nowhere and is very tedious to watch. I don't want to spoil it, but to me, it felt like I was cheated.
"The World of Kanako" is certainly an interesting film, and I get why somebody might like it, but it didn't have much of an appeal to me outside of its sheer extremeness.
Before I go on any further, I should stress that all the people in this movie, with very little exceptions, are bad people. There is nary a redeeming quality to be found among them. That said, they are all acted very well, and have very distinct qualities (all of them bad). There is our main character, Akikazu, with whom his actor, Koji Yakusho, is obviously having a lot of fun. Although he doesn't have more than two emotions, anger and fury, Yakusho manages to keep him fresh and entertaining throughout. With a less talented actor in this part, the movie would have been unwatchable.
My favourite side character in the film is police detective Asai, played by Satoshi Tsumabuki, who stands out for constantly smiling and licking a lollypop. He is obviously annoying to our main character, but never to us as audience, which is a feat very few actors pull off well. He also brings a lot of humor to the film, which is always welcome in such a bleak world as the one of Kanako.
The plot of the film, as mentioned above, kicks in after Akikazu's daughter, Kanako, has disappeared. Now he's looking for her, slowly revealing her true character in the process. Which includes a lot of violence in all of its shapes.
The film is very unpleasant to watch, with many a scene that made me cringe due to its extreme violence. Some of it is darkly comical, some of it is perverse, all of it is over the top. I personally liked that, because it is very true to the characters, and it's nice to see a movie push boundaries in such a blatant and bold way. "The World of Kanako" is basically an exploitation film, but it's done with enough style and wit to not make it seem pointless.
The editing style of the film is also very abrasive. It reminded me of "Spring Breakers," which I enjoyed a lot. If you liked that movie too, you might like "Kanako." I don't think it worked as well here, though, because unlike "Spring Breakers," this movie has fairly complicated plotting at times, and the intentionally confusing storytelling got quite irritating. Which is also true to the characters, I suppose, but unlike the extreme violence, this element of the film seemed more to be done for shock value.
The biggest weakness of the film is that the story, after a reveal fairly early on, basically stalls, and everything Akikazu learns after that point is just an extension of that information. This makes the movie's more uncomfortable elements seem very shallow, because there is little else driving the film forwards other than nastiness, and I wasn't invested in anything that was happening. I guess the director was going for a "violence begets violence" kind of message, but if so, the movie could have been at least half an hour shorter and it would have had a bigger impact.
To top it all, the resolution to the film comes out of nowhere and is very tedious to watch. I don't want to spoil it, but to me, it felt like I was cheated.
"The World of Kanako" is certainly an interesting film, and I get why somebody might like it, but it didn't have much of an appeal to me outside of its sheer extremeness.